Employment in Canadian tourism
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In 2009, the Canadian tourism sector accounted for 1.6 million jobs, or 9.4% of all jobs in Canada, down slightly from 10.0% in 1999. Jobs include both full-time and part-time jobs, as well as employee jobs and jobs from self-employment. Five occupational groups dominated the tourism sector, accounting for 48.2% of all jobs: food-counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related occupations (245,000 jobs); food and beverage servers (191,000 jobs); cooks (145,000 jobs); restaurant and food service managers (82,000 jobs); and cashiers (59,000 jobs).
By the fourth quarter of 2010, employment across all tourism sectors was 0.8% higher than at the same point in 2009. In 2009, however, jobs in tourism industries declined 0.6% from 2008, a smaller decline than for all industries in Canada (1.7%).
In 2009, the workweek in tourism was 29.0 hours per week, compared with 32.7 hours in the total economy. This reflects the higher proportion of part-time jobs and the lower proportion of self-employment.
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